Why doesn't E* up the resolution on ScFi to 720x480?

[HokieEngineer]

But how bad would the hit be if they added the "ED" versions in MPEG4?

That would require them to launch a completely separate feed of SCIFI, as there are many legacy receivers that are mpeg2 only. Their issue right now is they have too wide of a range of technology out there. At some point they need to consolidate.

Right now they have 12 channels plus some musak channels on the transponder SCIFI is on. They all share 30Mbit of bandwidth. SCIFI averages around 2-2.5Mbit. I've seen stream internet video with better bandwidth .

 

[mike123abc]

Sorry to say, but I do not see them doing anything to SciFi. They will add SciFi HD when they get around to it, they see no reason to change the SD program. What are they going to do when HD comes out? Reduce it back? It would end up being a waste.

To be honest it is starting to look like Dish will hold off on HD until January. What better way to distract from a price increase (traditionally in February) than to announce 12 new HD channels and 30-50 new HD LiL markets at the same time. Here is the bunch of goodies you demanded, but of course it raises our costs so we will only charge you $3-4/month more!

 

[FitzAusTex]

With ScFi being the most wanted HD channel, I was thinking...

If they WON'T give us ScFi-HD can they at least up the resolution on what they are giving us so it is watchable on a HD dispaly?

I dont think that is asking to much...do you?

What prevents them from upping the res to its maximum?

E*...toss us a frikin bone why-dont-cha....

And at the very least....do it for Razor on the 24th

People on boards such as this tend to be more tech-y, and there is probably a significant correlation between tech-yness and an interest in science fiction. my theory is thus that, while SciFi is a much wanted add on this, and similar boards, SciFi is probably not nearly as of much interest to the general population.

 

[steve4810]

Although I don't have first hand knowledge of this I believe SCIFI channel sends Dish an MPEG2 signal and so Dish can't do anything to add more pixels. The only solution is to use the zoom function of your TV or STB.

I believe that almost every program provider these days distributes digital signals except maybe RFDTV, FSTV and the like.

Think about it: Why would a network spend extra money to send pixels that aren't useful. Dish sends you 100% of the pixels SCIFI sends them.

Compression is an other matter.

 

[CPeanutG]

Unrelated (probably) but Comcast has similarily crappy res on their SciFi channel, its worse than other channels, digital or not.

 

[Pepper]

I have read in other posts that the backhaul (c-band analog maybe?) of SciFi is pretty good.

Dish sends you 100% of the pixels SCIFI sends them.

Nope, not even close. They downrez the picture, then compress it. There are definitely more pixels available.

 

[WhitePolarBear]

Sorry to say, but I do not see them doing anything to SciFi. They will add SciFi HD when they get around to it, they see no reason to change the SD program. What are they going to do when HD comes out? Reduce it back? It would end up being a waste.

To be honest it is starting to look like Dish will hold off on HD until January. What better way to distract from a price increase (traditionally in February) than to announce 12 new HD channels and 30-50 new HD LiL markets at the same time. Here is the bunch of goodies you demanded, but of course it raises our costs so we will only charge you $3-4/month more!

Would they compress the SD signal in general in preparation of the launch of HD? Think about it, their income will only increase significantly if many SD subcribers start switching to HD? What's better than showing them the BIG difference between SD and HD? One way to do that is to make use more compression on SD channels to make them look bad. - My conspiracy theory.

 

[steve4810]

I have read in other posts that the backhaul (c-band analog maybe?) of SciFi is pretty good.

Nope, not even close. They downrez the picture, then compress it. There are definitely more pixels available.

If there is an analog backhaul then it's easy to believe that if SciFi upped their digital feed to HD, Dish went to the analog backhaul . They have a warehouse full of unused digitizers from the old days. Or maybe SciFi never had a digital feed of their SD signal, but that seems unlikely to me.

If either of those was the situation Dish may have choosen a rez less than the SciFi digital(if it existed) feed used was before it went HD.

That's something I think they are totally capable of doing.

All that being said, I'm pretty sure they don't downrez digital signals. That would be "transcoding" and is very hard to do in real time. I've heard charlie et al more than once say they can't modify the feeds they receive. Again, compression is a different matter.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

All that being said, I'm pretty sure they don't downrez digital signals. That would be "transcoding" and is very hard to do in real time. I've heard charlie et al more than once say they can't modify the feeds they receive. Again, compression is a different matter.

Yes, but E* sometimes tells the provider to give it to them at a lower resolution / lower bandwidth. Just like they did with the VOOM HD channels.

So while SCI-FI could have provided the channel at 702x480 at high bandwidth, they may be feeding E* at 544x480 at medium bandwidth per E*'s request.

 

[goaliebob99]

Although I don't have first hand knowledge of this I believe SCIFI channel sends Dish an MPEG2 signal and so Dish can't do anything to add more pixels. The only solution is to use the zoom function of your TV or STB.

Mpeg 2 is the compression used. As far as the amount of pixles yes dish can change the amount of pixels they are braudcasting by changing the resoultion. They do this now for hd as alot of their HD channels comes in at 1920 x 1080I but they change the resolution to 1440 x 1080I. Its the same here. Dish just needs to pass the native resolution to the coustomer instead of bit shaping.

Using the zoom fuction does nothing to add pixles and streches out the pixels you are allready lacking to make the picture to look worse.

Think about it: Why would a network spend extra money to send pixels that aren't useful. Dish sends you 100% of the pixels SCIFI sends them.
Compression is an other matter.

Also would you buy a car with out the bumper? Im sure your bumper is useful but you never need it. On a bigger screen the extra pixels are usefull because your using those pixels. How do we know that dish is infact sending the correct amount of pixels they recive from scifi as when it came to hd they reduced the amount of pixles there.

 

[steve4810]

Yes, but E* sometimes tells the provider to give it to them at a lower resolution / lower bandwidth. Just like they did with the VOOM HD channels.

So while SCI-FI could have provided the channel at 702x480 at high bandwidth, they may be feeding E* at 544x480 at medium bandwidth per E*'s request.

Can't argue with that.

 

[harshness]

But how bad would the hit be if they added the "ED" versions in MPEG4?

It would be a huge hit as the MPEG2 people wouldn't be able to watch it.

 

[RVD420]

It would be a huge hit as the MPEG2 people wouldn't be able to watch it.

Another incentive to get customers to swap to VIP hardware.